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David reached for the watch, and I reluctantly handed it to him.
“Daddy used to carry one of two pocket watches every day. When I was little, before Momma died, we’d play a game. Every morning at breakfast, I’d try to guess which one he had in his pocket.”
“Surely he didn’t wear the other watch in this box. It looks like it should be in a museum.”
“No, it was this one and the one I sold. But this one was always my favorite. The other one was prettier, but for some reason I was always drawn to this one.”
A soft smile lifted his mouth. “I guess we know why.”
“I take it you haven’t heard anything yet?”
“No. But I just sent the e-mails out. Let’s give it a little time.”
I nodded. We didn’thavetime but pointing that out wouldn’t help anything.
Then it hit me: Myra said Daddy said I’d neededtime. The watches. He’d given me a clue. but I was too stupid to put it together. What else had I missed?
I shook my head. “I forgot to pick up the pizza.”
He leaned over and kissed me. “We’ll figure something else out.” He grabbed my hand and placed the watch in my palm. “But do me a favor: don’t ever consider selling these two pieces unless you are so desperate you have no other option.”
I glanced down at the timepiece, then put it back into the box. “I won’t.”
We made sandwiches for lunch before we searched my old room. After an hour of looking in every nook and cranny, we came up with nothing.
David pulled me into a hug. “Let’s take a break. I’ll check my e-mail, and then we can figure out which room to start on next.”
I put in some more laundry, fighting my rising frustration. I was beginning to accept the fact that I might never find the rest of Daddy’s notes or that mysterious ring Myra had mentioned. The most pressing issue was figuring out Ahone’s mark. The four-pointed star had turned up twice in the course of a few hours. Could I trust that we’d found it? Enough to permanently put it on my back? When I finished, I found David in the kitchen, sitting at the counter with his computer.
I opened the lid to the box and picked up the starry-sky watch and opened the cover, examining the face. It hadn’t been wound in ages, and the hands were frozen. Clutching it in my hand, I closed my eyes as warm memories of my childhood washed over me. I was a little girl again, sitting at the kitchen table with Daddy as Momma served us breakfast.
“Okay, Elliphant,” Daddy said, running his hand over the pocket of his uniform pants. “Which one today?”
“Um…” I tapped my chin like Daddy sometimes did. “You wore the silver one yesterday. Maybe you wore it again to trick me.”
“You’ll never know until you guess.”
“You picked my favorite. You wore the starry-sky.”
Grinning, he pulled it from his pocket, unhooked it from its chain, and put it in my hand.
“I was right!” I bounced in my seat.
“This isyourwatch,” Daddy said. “I’m just holding onto it until you need it.”
Momma scooped scrambled eggs onto my plate, then kissed the top of my head.
Daddy beamed at me, picking up his fork. “As soon as you finish breakfast, you can look for the quarter I hid.”
My eyes flew open. “I know where to look.”
David glanced up from his computer. “You do?”
“Daddy and I used to play a game when I was really little—preschool age. He would hide a quarter and I had to find it. We didn’t do it for very long. Momma said I was too good at finding them and I was getting too much money. I had completely forgotten until a moment ago.”
“So where do we look?”
“Outside.” I jumped off the stool and ran out onto the front porch, David on my heels. “I was little, but Daddy used to say he couldn’t make it too easy. He told me a good archaeologist had to know where to look. That was half the battle.” I knelt in front of the two-foot brick wall that ran along the front of the house. Running my hand over the bricks, I stopped when I found a loose one and gave it a tug. “And the adventure.”
